CONNECTING THE DOTS

THE FARCE OF THE WAR ON DRUGS

My brother Howard Wooldridge
served as a decorated police officer and detective in
Lansing,
Michigan
for 18 years. During that time, he
collared killers, drunk drivers, child molesters, rapists, wife beaters and
drug dealers. What he learned launched
him on a crusade to stop the federal government’s useless 35 year “War on
Drugs.”

My brother stands so
passionate about his cause that he rode his horse Misty 3,300 miles coast to
coast across
America
in 2005. To gain attention, his
sweat-stained T-shirt read, “Cops Say Legalize Drugs: Ask Me Why.”

The drug war costs American
taxpayers $70 billion a year and over the past 35 years, costs approach a
trillion dollars. Result? Drugs remain CHEAPER and MORE available than 35
years ago.

“The war on drugs,” said
Howard Wooldridge, one of the founders of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
at www.leap.cc. “How is that working for us in
America? Is it reducing crime? Is it reducing rates of death and
disease? Is it effective in keeping
drugs and drug dealers away from our children? Is it making
America
safer and more prosperous? As my
profession chases drugs, what are we missing? These are important questions as this prohibition approach costs us
taxpayers some 70 billion dollars this year.”

Wooldridge said, “As a
police officer, I fought on the side of the ‘good guys’ for 18 years in the “War
on Drugs,” giving me ample actual experience in the trenches. After much time, consternation and
out-and-out frustration in not achieving a single, stated goal in the long
term, I came to the conclusion that we must be doing something wrong. It seemed no matter how many dealers we took off the streets, new ones immediately popped
up to take their places. The prices for
drugs kept falling, indicating an oversupply. The purity became better; heroin increased from 3.6 percent to near 50
percent purity between 1980 and 2007. The prison population kept increasing until over 70 percent of all
inmates are there on some drug-related charge. The only thing we have to show for this terrible policy is that today
after 36 years and a trillion tax dollars spent, illegal drugs are cheaper,
stronger and very easy for our kids to buy.”

In those 18 years, I
listened to my brother Howard’s frustrations each time we sat down for
dinner. He bemoaned the senselessness of
the drug war. The people within the
department now work it to keep their jobs and nothing else. The “War on Drugs” exists to exist.

“Why has my profession been
unable to make a dent?” Howard Wooldridge asked. “It has not been for lack of trying. Thousands of police officers have been shot
and hundreds killed. We have arrested
36 million Americans for drug possession, use or sale. First, understand that drug dealers accept
as a condition of employment--death and long prison terms. We know there is an inexhaustible number of
people who will risk death to make huge profits that prohibition
generates. A second major reason is
that when someone buys an illegal drug from a dealer, nobody calls 911 to
report the ‘crime.’ It is very difficult
for us to catch suspects when the phone does not ring. Neither the buyers nor the sellers see
themselves as ‘victims.’

“Drug gangs have spread like
the plague out of the large cities and into medium and even small cities. Young teens join gangs to make ‘easy,’ big
money selling drugs. Fifteen year olds
are shot and killed every week because drug prohibition gives them this job option. Many Hispanic members are the first
generation of immigrants who don’t want to work hard like their parents. The role model in the barrio is the rich
drug dealer, not the hard-working parent. A policy which many say is to protect kids actually causes hundreds of
deaths a year and tens of thousands of destroyed young lives.”

For any curious Americans,
MS-13 gangs from
El Salvador,
now numbering 15,000 members, operate in 33 states according to a recent
Newsweek report. They recruit our kids
with easy money. Once in the gang, their
lives stand at risk.

“On our borders customs
officers spend huge amounts of time looking for smuggled drugs which allows
them less time for catching the millions who cross illegally,” Howard
Wooldridge said. “The Coast Guard is focused on drugs and not the ships which
bring over many hundreds of illegals in ships. In the century of 9/11 we should be focusing on threats to the nation
and instead we are heavily engaged in a nearly four decade, failed policy of
drug prohibition.

“The unintended consequences of this terrible war are needlessly
destroying the lives of generations of
America's youth. How many
people do you know who have used an illegal drug, then put the drugs behind
them and gone on to lead productive lives? US presidents, many members of our legislative bodies, tens of
thousands of police officers have done exactly that. With imprisonment,
those possibilities are eliminated. You can get over an addiction, but
you will never get over a conviction.

“Now envision a world where
all drugs sell in state-regulated stores, not on street corners by teens which
gets them killed. Imagine a world where
the federal police focus on securing our borders from armed and unarmed
invasion. Envision a world where terrorists
don’t buy weapons from money made selling drugs. Imagine a world where felony crime drops over
50 percent and local police focus on drunk drivers, child predators and
terrorists. Envision a world where if
one day you or a loved one has a drug problem, you see a doctor not a
judge.
America can have this world, if it
repeals its laws of the New Prohibition.”

What is the difference between legalizing drugs and simply taking them off the **QQ**illegal list?**QQ** Let**Q**s not say they are legal by some law. Let**Q**s simply repeal the laws and policies that say they are illegal.